StemExpress has worked diligently to respond to myriad requests from the Select Investigative Panel of the House Energy & Commerce Committee (“Select Panel”), which has focused its attention on the use of fetal tissue in research. StemExpress’s cooperation with the Select Panel comes after fully cooperating with three other committees in the House and Senate, none of which determined that StemExpress’s support of fetal tissue research was inappropriate. To date, we have provided over 2,000 pages of documents to the various Senate and House Committees—including nearly 900 pages of materials to the Select Panel—and have offered witnesses who are willing to testify under oath to answer questions about fetal tissue procurement and pricing. To date, none of these individuals have been scheduled to provide deposition testimony.

Based on the exhibits presented at today’s hearing, the Select Panel’s Majority members chose to instead use documents that appear to be stolen or altered versions of StemExpress’s documents that were illegally obtained by David Daleiden, who was criminally indicted in Texas and is under investigation in California.

“I am appalled by Chairman Blackburn’s statements in today’s hearing. Contrary to her assertions, StemExpress has provided thousands of pages of documents to the Select Panel and other Senate and House Committees, including documents illustrating that we do not profit from the provision of fetal tissue to researchers,” said StemExpress’s CEO, Cate Dyer. “Unfortunately, the Select Panel continues to ignore the evidence, instead misstating facts and citing to documents that appear to have been stolen from StemExpress,” added Dyer.

Perhaps the greatest irony associated with the Select Panel’s investigation—and, indeed, of the three other Congressional investigations resulting from Mr. Daleiden’s illegal activities—is the reality of how much financial loss StemExpress has incurred providing urgently needed fetal tissue to medical researchers around the world working to treat and cure cancer, Parkinson’s disease, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

StemExpress’ work providing adult blood, tissue, cells and other products provided to researchers represents 99% of its gross revenue every year. The remaining 1% is for fetal tissue provided to researchers at academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies around the globe. Even this small portion of our revenue is unequivocally not profit; rather, StemExpress incurs substantial losses each year to support fetal tissue research.

In 2015, StemExpress had gross revenues of under $26,000 specifically related to fetal tissue delivered to researchers; the company incurred costs of $33,000 associated with procuring and providing those fetal tissue specimens, for a net loss of approximately $7,000 in 2015.

In 2014, StemExpress had gross revenues of under $50,000 specifically related to fetal tissue delivered to researchers; the company incurred costs of $62,000 associated with procuring and providing those fetal tissue specimens, for a net loss of approximately $13,000 in 2014.

Despite the efforts of the Select Panel’s Majority to paint a picture of a highly lucrative “fetal tissue industry,” the numbers above demonstrate that nothing could be further from the truth. Quite simply, StemExpress supports fetal tissue research at a financial loss because it is the right thing to do for the research community that has determined it is a necessary component of their efforts to find cures and treatments for disease.